Robot gets DNA as life sciences advance

Life science specialist Micromass has teamed up with automation systems engineer J and C Consultants and machine actuator manufacturer Hoerbiger-Origa to reduce the cost of DNA sample analysis.

Industrial automation technologies are playing an increasing role in bringing modern healthcare standards to more and more people around the world.

Life science specialist Micromass has teamed up with automation systems engineer J and C Consultants and machine actuator manufacturer Hoerbiger-Origa to reduce the cost of DNA sample analysis.

Production of Micromass's DNA sampling machine is ramping up at manufacturers J and C Consultants, as laboratories throughout the world are adopting through-the-night unmanned working.

At the heart of this sophisticated machine is a multi-axis robot, built from Hoerbiger-Origa actuators, which mounts the sample plates into a 50-plate cassette ready for auto loading into the mass spectrometry analyser.

Micromass prides itself on being at the cutting edge of mass spectrometry for the health and life science sectors, helping to reduce costs and make medical excellence available to a far greater proportion of the world's population.

Mass spectrometry is a key enabling technique in analytical science, allowing chemical entities such as functional proteins and pharmaceuticals to be identified and characterised by exactly measuring their molecular masses.

In order to design and produce sophisticated equipment in compressed time frames Micromass has partnered with J and C Consultants to develop its latest high throughput DNA analysis machine, which is capable of working unattended for many hours at a time.

Micromass has already developed spectrometry technologies, and used J and C's complementary skills to develop automated loading and unloading systems.

At one of the early design meetings Micromass suggested that it would be advantageous if the autoloader could fit within the footprint of the spectrometer.

This defined a tight space envelope, into which J and C's robot would have to fit, which lead to the decision to adopt Hoerbiger-Origa's compact and efficient actuators for its motion axes.

The sample plates are 55 x 41mm, made of stainless steel and fitted with three feet on their underside to facilitate stacking.

The robot stacks these one on top of another to fill the cassette.

J and C senior partner Phil Johnson explains: "To do this securely we wanted to stall the robot's drive each time it stacked on another plate.

This meant we could not use stepper motors, and compressed air was not an option because it is not available in many bio laboratories.

This made servos our motor of choice".

Careful design allowed J and C to generate the required fairly complicated loading motion using only two linear axes, one vertical and one horizontal, a degree of simplicity that suited the space constraints of the project well.

For these Johnson called in manufacturer Hoerbiger-Origa for detailed design assistance, and the decision was made to specify OSP25s for both axes.

"We needed a robust design because these machines are exported around the world, making reliability in the field a must.

Hoerbiger-Origa therefore suggested we use its Proline guides in conjunction with the OSP 25 actuators.

It also designed a unique mounting arrangement for the motors so that everything fits neatly into the available space, yet is simple enough to allow easy maintenance by the life science users.

In fact H-O now supplies us with all of these parts integrated into a pre-built subassembly".

Hoerbiger-Origa manufactures a range of machine elements for automation, including belt and ballscrew mechanisms, multi-axis connectors, precision guides and various motor and controller options - all designed within an interchangeable modular format.

The units selected for the Micromass/J and C analyser are precision ballscrew actuators, able to smoothly pick up and position the sample plates to a high degree of precision, whilst also coping with the extra load as the motors are stalled to ensure the stack's rigidity.

The two axes are controlled in unison by dedicated motion control software run on a single PLC, which communicates with the operating scientists' PC via a dedicated RS232 link.

"We started on the Micromass project just about a year ago, and proud of how much we have achieved in that time", says Johnson.

"Our prototype machines were proving to be way better than the specified 99% reliable, so we are happy that they will give years of trouble free use wherever the are installed in the world.

The first order for five-off was delivered on time and within budget and the second order for six-off has just been completed.

Every indication shows that the global health and life science industry are embracing the machines with more orders flowing in every day.

With Micromass's commitment to leading technology developments for their customers, we can be sure of some interesting projects in the future".

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